WHAT IS A CASE main character has to do—what his or her most
• A business case imitates or simulates a real
situation.
• A case must have four characteristics:
1- A significant business issue or issues
2- Sufficient information on which to base
conclusions about the issues
3- No objective conclusion—in other words,
no explicit or implied right answer
4- A nonlinear organization
• A case is very likely to include conflicting
information, which is consistent with real-world
situations.
• Cases can also include information that serves
as noise to distract you and makes it harder to
distinguish useful information.
• Cases seem to have a logical structure. They
have an opening section, a sequence of
headings and subheadings, and a concluding
section. Nevertheless, business cases are
typically nonlinear, meaning the content is not
presented in the most logical way. Information
on a single topic is scattered among different
sections in a case.
• Techniques for making meaning from cases:
1- Recognizing the main issue in a case that
needs solving and the most efficient way to
go about investigating it.
2- Reading the case actively and efficiently to
provide a basis for your analysis of the case.
3- Following a path of analysis to arrive at an
evidence-backed conclusion about the
main issue.
• Three core scenarios cases can illustrate are:
1- The need to make a critical ‘’decision’’ and
potentially persuade other characters in the
case to accept it
2- The need to perform an in-depth
‘’evaluation’’ that lays out the pros and cons
or strengths and weaknesses of the subject
of the case
3- The need to perform a comprehensive
‘’problem diagnosis’’ that identifies the root
causes of a problem described in the case
• One of the best ways to identify the core
scenario of a case is to ask yourself what the
important task is.
CASE READING PROCESS
• Ask these questions respectively:
1- Read the first and last sections of the case.
What do they tell you about the core
scenario of the case?
2- Take a quick look at the other sections and
the exhibits to determine what information
the case contains.
3- Stop! Now is the time to think rather than
read. What is the core scenario of the case?
What does the main character have to do?
What is the major uncertainty?
4- What do you need to know to accomplish
what the main character has to do or to
resolve the major uncertainty? List the
things you need to know about the
situation. Don’t worry about being wrong.
5- Go through the case, skim sections, and
mark places or takes notes about where you
find information that corresponds to the list
of things you need to know.
6- You’re ready for a deep dive into the case.
Carefully read and analyze the information
you’ve identified that is relevant to the
things you need to know. As you proceed in
your analysis, ask, how does what I’m
learning help me understand the main
issue?
7- Your ultimate goal is to arrive at a position
or conclusion about the case’s main issue,
backed by evidence from the case.
Remember, there are usually no objectively
right answers to a case. The best answer is
the one with the strongest evidence
backing it.
8- What actions does your position support or
require?
ANALYZING CASES
• In case study, analysis is the close examination
of the pieces of information in the case that you
think may illuminate the main issue.
• The case reading process and the identification
of a case’s core scenario provide the initial
purpose for your analysis.
• The goal of case analysis is to investigate the
pieces of the puzzle and arrange them into a
picture of the main issue that makes sense to
you.
• The outcome of analysis is information,
inferences, and calculations sufficient to allow
you to take a position on the main issue.
• Analysis should be methodical and focused.
• When you analyze a case, evidence is
information that supports a position on the
main issue.
• The main issue is defined by the case’s core
scenario: a decision, an evaluation, or a
problem diagnosis.
• Case evidence consists of facts, including
numbers; calculations based on factual
numbers and reasonable assumptions;
inferences from facts; and statements by
characters in the case.
• Evidence has a characteristic that’s crucial to
the credibility of a position or conclusion you
advocate it can be independently verified.
• Some evidence is more inherently reliable than
other forms.
WRITING CASE-BASED ESSAYS
• Four things you should be concerned about
when writing case-based essays are:
1- The question you’ve been asked
2- How to read and analyze a case
3- How to organize your writing about a case
4- How to write clearly, concisely, and
correctly
• A case essay can be organized to answer three
simple questions:
1- ‘’What?’’ Your position statement that
responds to the question.
2- ‘’Why?’’ Your argument that supports your
position statement.
3- ‘’How?’’ Your action plan detailing what
needs to be done based on your position
statement and argument.
• A sharply focused position statement at the
beginning of an essay answers the reader’s first
question: What is your answer? Without one,
the essay has no purpose or direction as far as
the reader is concerned.
• To develop an argument, you need to have
reasons to direct your selection of evidence.
• An argument consists of a conclusion or
position statement, criteria or causes, and
evidence. Each criteria or cause and the
evidence related to it contributes to the proof
of the position statement.
• In case-based essays, most of your sentences
will provide evidence.
• Evidence comprises case facts, including
numbers; calculations based on numbers in the
case; opinions expressed by characters in the
case; data extrapolated from exhibits; and
inferences made from any or all of these.
• Evidence can also be categorized as
quantitative and qualitative.
• Inference requires a brief explanation.
Inferences aren’t stated in the case. They are
statements that follow logically from
statements that are stated.
• In an essay, reasoning is carried out sentence by
sentence.
• An action plan has four elements:
1- It states specific goals.
2- It translates the key points of the argument
into action.
3- It consists of a series of specific action steps.
4- It puts the action steps in chronological
order.
• The general purpose of an action plan is to
improve the situation that is the subject of the
argument.
• Argument lays out your position and the
evidence supporting it. Action plan goals
describe a desired end state. So, an action plan
is the bridge between the argument and the
evidence.
• All the actionable content in an argument
should be included in the action plan.
• An action plan consists of specific steps to meet
the goals of the plan and incorporate the
actionable content of the argument.
• An action plan is not just a collection of steps;
it’s a set of steps meant to be executed in a
specific order in time. Urgent steps come first,
less urgent ones come later, and some come
much later.
• Action plans are easier to understand when
they’re divided into short term and long term:
1- Short-term steps are urgent, easy, or
necessary for longer-term steps.
2- Long-term steps are hard to achieve,
complex, time consuming to complete, or
dependent on prior steps.
DECISION CASES
• Most common type of case is decision cases.
• Decision scenarios are generally easy to
recognize because the decision is stated, often
in the first section.
Analyzing Decision Cases
• The analysis of a decision scenario has six
distinct elements:
1- Identification of the required decision
2- Review or identification of options
3- Criteria selection
4- Criteria-based analysis
5- Recommended decision
6- Proposed actions
• Decision criteria should be:
1- Relevant to the decision.
2- Relevant to the case evidence.
3- Limited to the minimum necessary for
making a sound decision.
Writing Decision Case Essays
• Essays about decision scenarios have five
elements. They:
1- State the decision that needs to be made
and any options.
2- Recommend a decision option (i.e., present
a position statement).
3- State the decision criteria.
4- Prove the recommended decision.
5- Present an action plan.
• The purpose of a decision action plan is to
implement the decision as effectively as
possible.
• Some questions to think about when planning
the action plan:
1- What actions are essential to implement
the decision?
àWhat urgent actions must be taken?
àWhat other short-term actions are
necessary, but not urgent?
àWhat are the long-term steps?
2- Who should be involved in the
implementation? (And, possibly, who
should not be involved?)
3- What groups, teams, or departments are
necessary for successful implementation?
àWhat are their roles in the implementation?
àWhat groups, teams, or departments could
oppose or undercut implementation? What
actions can soften or eliminate their
opposition?
4- What things could go wrong with the
implementation? What actions could avoid
or mitigate these problems?
EVALUATION CASES
• A case with an evaluation core scenario
portrays a situation in which a deeper
understanding of a person, division, company,
country, strategy, or policy is necessary before
any critical decisions or actions can be taken.
• Evaluation cases often state criteria as
questions somewhere in the case.
• At the beginning of a case, be alert for the
words “evaluation,” “reevaluation,”
“evaluate,” or “reevaluate” and similar ones
such as “assess,” “reassess,” or “appraise”
evaluation cases usually have that.
• An evaluation scenario always identifies a
specific subject.
• When the main character has to make a
judgment about the worth, value,
performance, effectiveness, outcome, or
consequences of something, the core scenario
is an evaluation.
Analyzing Evaluation Cases
• The analysis of a case evaluation scenario has
six elements:
1- Identification of the subject
2- Criteria selection
3- Criteria-based analysis
4- Overall evaluation
5- Identification of contingencies
6- Recommended actions
• The desired understanding or knowledge to be
gained from an evaluation is often the worth,
value, performance, effectiveness, outcome,
consequences, or risks of the subject.
• Choose criteria that are relevant to the subject
of the evaluation.
• Evaluation has an important requirement: it
always needs to consider the positives and
negatives of the subject.
• Goal is to determine the positive or negative
“best fit” between the criteria and the
evidence.
• Only be concerned with a major contingency,
one that could have a significant impact on your
position. A contingency isn’t required for an
evaluation.
 Writing Evaluation Case Essays
• Essays about evaluation scenarios have five
elements. They:
1- State your overall evaluation (i.e., present a
position statement).
2- State the evaluation criteria.
3- Prove the overall evaluation.
4- Explain and respond to any major
contingencies.
5- Present an action plan.
• The most essential element of evaluation
scenario essays is the criteria.
• Criteria are derived from case content, your
experience, and concepts, frameworks, and
formulas relevant to the content.
• Your essay should begin with an overall or
bottom-line judgment. It is your position
statement—the most important statement of
the essay.
• An overall evaluation typically mentions the
major positive and negative findings.
• Keep two points about criteria in mind:
1- the number of criteria should be limited to
those that are critical for making the
evaluation.
2- effective criteria can be broad or narrow,
depending on the case.
• The argument consists of presenting the most
compelling evidence related to each criterion,
showing how it supports your overall
evaluation, and acknowledging evidence that
opposes your overall evaluation.
• An accurate evaluation needs to include
whatever the criteria indicate about the
subject.
• Every evaluation is subject to contingencies:
current conditions or potential events that can
have an impact on your overall evaluation.
• In a case essay, you should acknowledge only
major contingencies—those that have the
potential to change your overall evaluation.
• When you state a contingency in an essay, you
will be more persuasive if you explain how it
can be controlled or eliminated.
• The goal of an evaluation action plan is to
improve the situation described in the case.
• The best way to lay out an action plan is in
chronological order, short term and long term
(and medium term, if necessary).
• Some questions to think about when planning
the action plan:
1- Which of your findings can benefit most
from action?
àWhat urgent actions will result in the
greatest benefit?
àWhat other short-term actions are necessary
but not urgent?
àWhat long-term steps will result in the most
benefit?
2- Who should be involved in the action steps?
(And, possibly, who should not be
involved?)
3- What things could go wrong with the action
plan? What actions could avoid or mitigate
these problems?
PROBLEM DIAGNOSIS CASES
• Problem diagnosis is used in many disciplines,
from business to engineering.
• Problem diagnosis simply means that a
significant problem needs a causal explanation.
• A problem can be an outcome, reaction, result,
or event.
• A problem can be positive or negative.
• A problem-diagnosis case will often open with
an overview of the problem and introduce the
main character who has to figure out what the
causes are.
• Problems are the effects of causes such as
actions, processes, activities, or forces.
• Many problems in cases concern business
pathology: managers who perform poorly,
change efforts that fail to achieve their goals,
and companies that violate laws and ethics.
• Problem situations can fall anywhere between
the poles of complete success and total failure.
Analyzing Problem Diagnosis Scenario Cases
• Considering what the main character has to do
can help you identify a problem-diagnosis
scenario. In some cases, the main character or
other significant characters know what the
problem is. Sometimes, however, the main
character has little if any awareness of a
problem.
• A problem is an effect of a cause or, more likely,
several causes. Diagnosis connects the problem
to its major causes.
• The greatest benefit of a problem diagnosis is
that it opens up the possibility of actions to
solve the problem or mitigate it. Until a
problem is accurately diagnosed, any action to
fix it is essentially arbitrary.
• The analysis of a case problem-diagnosis is to maintain and extend the positive outcome
scenario has four elements: or result.
1- Definition of the problem • Think about the following questions when
2- Diagnosis through causal analysis planning a problem-diagnosis action plan:
3- Overall diagnosis 1- How can the major causes of the problem
4- Recommended actions be fixed or, when the problem is positive,
• Diagnosis is an analysis that seeks to define the be supported and sustained?
major causes responsible for the problem. àWhat urgent actions will have the greatest
impact on the problem?
Writing Problem Diagnosis Scenario Case àWhat other short-term actions are necessary
Essays but not as urgent?
• Essays about problem-diagnosis scenarios have àWhat long-term steps will result in the most
four elements. They: impact on the problem?
1- Define the problem. 2- Who should be involved in the action steps?
2- Summarize the causes of the problem. (And, possibly, who should not be
3- Prove each cause. involved?)
4- Present an action plan. 3- What could go wrong with the action plan?
• In the essay, you need to define the problem. What actions could avoid or mitigate these
Without a problem, there is nothing to problems?
diagnose.
• You can broadly define a problem in a sentence
or two and then describe its major
characteristics or symptoms.
• In a problem-diagnosis essay, the position
statement has two parts:
1- a problem definition
2- a summary of causes
• The second part names the major causes of the
problem you have just defined.
• The complex problems featured in cases usually
have multiple causes. But a diagnosis that has
many causes is hard for readers to grasp and
complicates action planning. If you find that
you have a list of, say, ten causes, consider
whether you can consolidate them.
• The most logical way to organize your
argument is by cause, from most important to
least. Your burden of proof is to show how the
causes contribute to the problem. To do this,
you’ll need evidence from the case and
appropriate analytical concepts and
frameworks that you can apply to the evidence.
• Analytical tools serve two purposes in problem
diagnosis:
1- They help you make connections between
causes and problems
2- They help organize the essay.
• The goal of a problem-diagnosis action plan is
to fix the problem.
• When the problem is positive (e.g., the
unexpected success of a new product), the goal